Had a new raditor put in and the car still overheats, the left side and top hose gets very hot, but the center and drivers side of the raditor is not hot at all. The thermostat is new also.

It sounds like your thermostat is stuck closed. Your thermostat also acts as a heater valve to let hot coolant go to your heater core to blow hot air if your thermstat is stuck close it prevents your coolant to run through your radiator to cool down and to blow hot air from your heater core. A way to check to see if your thermostat is working while its at operating temp feel the bottom and top radiator hose if your lower hose is cold and top is hot your thermo is stuck closed but be careful hoses might be very hot

The radiator would be aged or weak. Never drive the car without original anti freeze coolant. Check the radiator, radiator cap for both functions (compression and vacuum springs from under the radiator cap). Carefully examine the radiator and heater hoses and their clamps. Also carefully examine the cylinder block water lids on both sides for any corrosion. Finally pressure test the coolant system.

CAR OVERHEATING FIRST CHECK FOR LOW COOLANT IN THE RADIATOR COOLANT OVERFLOW JUG.IF COOLANT LEVEL IN OVERFLOW JUG LOW REFILL ADD COOLANT BACK TO THE FULL COLD MARK.PUT RADAITOR CAP ON COOLANT OVERFLOW JUG START ENGINE LET IT IDLE UNTIL IT OPERATING TEMPERATURE.MAKE SURE TOP RADIATOR HOSE GETTING HOT WHILE ENGINE WARM UP.IF TOP RADIATOR HOSE DONT GET HOT WHILE ENGINE IDLING YOUR THERMOSTAT COULD BE STUCK CLOSE CAUSING CAR TO OVERHEAT.IF TOP HOSE IS GETTING HOT.CHECK FOR COOLANT LEAKS CHECK TOP RADIATOR HOSE AND BOTTOM RADIATOR HOSE FOR LEAKS.CHECK FOR LEAKS AT THE RADIATOR CORES AND PLASTIC SIDE CONTAINERS.IF ALL IS GOOD ENGINE OVERHEATING WHILE IN A LONG TRAFFIC LINE, COOLANT FANS NOT COMING ON.COULD HAVE FAULTY ENGINE COOLANT TEMPERATURE SENSOR OR BLOWN COOLING FAN FUSE OR RELAY.COULD HAVE PCM FAULT.MAKE COOLING FAN ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS AND WIRING NOT DAMAGE OR BROKEN.

drain raditor fluid then take off upper and lower hoses and put your house water hose in lower raditor hose and turn on water and let run for about 5 mins. to flush out raditor.
then run in top hose to flush back then lower hose again. that should clean it out.

You either have the thermostat in upside down or you have an air pocket and the system needs to "burp". Sometimes this can be done by warming the engine and letting it cool down.

if you look close to the bottom of the ratator there should be a nipple sticking out about 1" this will be a plastic screw it will unscre and let the coolent bleed out make sure the car is not hot! Open the raditor top first. The screw will be on the left or right side approx. 3" from the side of the raiditor and 2" off the bottom.....A lot of people just remove the lower raditor hose...After you fill it up and run the car for a 15 min. let car cool down and top off the raiditor

First make sure the cooling system is full. This might require letting it cool and filling it more than once though the main raditor cap. Then it needs looked over for leaks. If it won;t stay full it'll overheat. The hose from the recovery tank to the raditor connection at the cap is a problem spot and it the raditor can't **** the coolant from the tank back into the raditor the engine will soon get low. If these things are alright then you neeed to watch it heat up, and see what's happening. The engine should worm up and as it does the upper raditor hose will warm and but hot but not right away. The side of the raditor should start to warm up soon after that, Touching the raditor it should warm up evenly from top to bottom if it doesn;t it's clogged. If the hose and engine get hot and the pressure inside the hoses rise but the raditor says cool then the therostate is sticking and needs to be changed. If the whole radidor gets hot till everythings too hot and the fan does'nt come on then you need to test the fan and it's fuses and connections. The cooling fan will be comanded on if you unplug the coolant temperture senser that's pluged into the side of the therosate hoseing as it's where the upper hose connects to the engine. If the fan seems to be coming on and hot air is coming off the back of the fan and it's still getting too hot and you've decided that the whole radidor is getting evenly hot then the engine may have an issue. Exhaust clogged up ( cat canvertor, muffer bent pipes) The check engine light might be on and the reasons it's on need to be examinded.

THE CHEVY 3.8 A GOOD ENGINE BUT YOU CAN;T LET THEM OVER HEAT EVEN ONCE THE INTAKE MANIFOLD IS ALUMINUM AND TENDS TO WHORP CAUSING THE HEAD GASKETS TO LEAK IN TO THE CYLINDERS ANTIFREEZE YOUR T STAT IS LOCATED ON TOP OF ENGINE LOOK AT TOP HOSE ON RADITOR FOLLOW IT BACK TO THE OTHER HOSE CLAMP ON THE HOSE THATS WHERE IT IS ALTHOUGH YOU PROBELLY NEED A NEW RADITOR AND A COMPLETE FLUSH OF THE SYSTEM YOU MAY WANT TO THINK OF GETTING RID OF IT WHILE IT STILL IS RUNNING SORRY HOPE IM WRONG BUT YOUR T STAT IS NOT THE OLNY PROBLEM GOOD LUCK

try the fan tempature sending unit. it tells the fan to come on at certain tempature if it went bad it wont tell the fan to come on

thermo is on top hose opens to let cool water in once hot water has activated it so yes it will be on top hose on block